


Blossoms for Spring

by pugosupo



Category: Gilmore Girls
Genre: AU where Rory dumps dean in a trash can after the first red flag, F/F, Slow Burn, all i know it it's gonna get gay lads, i guess???????, set somewhere between 2x07 and 2x09, so far jess doesn't exist but we'll see, thinly plotted excuse for dancing, what's a canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-30
Updated: 2018-04-30
Packaged: 2019-04-30 07:04:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14491458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pugosupo/pseuds/pugosupo
Summary: Paris and Rory are both flunking (by their standards) out of P.E. and their last hope is a unit on ballroom dancing - but, as luck would have it, they get assigned to each other as partners because of unknown reasons, and their coach is adamant that no one can change partners! Egad! As the first flowers of spring begin to grow, will something else blossom along the way?





	Blossoms for Spring

Of all the classes, on all the days, in the whole school year, Rory Gilmore had to get called to the guidance councillor during this one. She’d been pulled out P.E. so that the Mr Burdiness could warn her that they were all very concerned about her P.E. grades, and she really needed to get her grades up or her P.E. marks would pull down her average. 

“Here at Chilton,” He had told her with an air of gravitas Rory felt her fairly consistently rising marks had certainly not earned, “We expect our students to excel in every area, including their physical education.”

Rory had been able to improve her marks somewhat, as she’d had a few written tests on human biology in the last few months, but it was only enough to raise her overall score to a -B. She’d never gotten a -B in anything before, the Stars Hollow High P.E. class had been fairly lenient towards student who “forgot” their gym kit regularly, and most of Rory’s teachers had allowed her to play to her one strength - moving in a straight line at a medium pace for a reasonable amount of time, and allowed her to abstain from any activities involving sideways or - god forbid - backwards movement. The catching or accurate throwing of things had been right out. She’d managed to get pretty good at shot put back in the day, though she’d struggled to throw in any specific direction. She’d held the record for longest out-of-bounds throw in her year for a while. 

P.E. at Chilton required precision and coordination. Of all the things she’d expected to learn at the school, fencing was not among them. She’d managed to at least work out how to move her feet and hands at the same time, but had yet to win a single point. Rory had been relieved when the unit ended, until she learned what the next one would be. 

What kind of high school taught ball room dancing?

Emily, of course, had been delighted. Lorelai had laughed until she cried, and then only stopped to call and tell Miss Patty, who, as nicely as she could, gave her regards to whoever Rory’s lucky partner would be, and recommended Rory wear light shoes for his sake. 

Rory hadn’t thought about a partner until Miss Patty mentioned it. She couldn’t think of a single boy at the school she’d be happy to dance with. At least Dean wasn’t around to make a big jealous deal of it all. She wasn’t much for religion, but she did send out a quick “Please, anyone but Tristan,” to anyone who might be listening.

She made it back to class just as the bell rang, and found the entire class huddled around a sheet of paper stuck to the wall, chatting excitedly and occasionally giggling.

“Miss Gilmore!” Coach Phillips called her over, and gestured to the crowd. “Partners have been assigned randomly, and they’re set so I don’t want to hear any complaints. The music is also set, so I don’t want to hear anymore about how the In Sync Boys would just be soon much more inspiring. Your partner should have the choreography booklet.”

Phillips brushed past her and out the door, away from the cloying mass of students trying to get to the sheet, only to leave looking either shellshocked or in small groups frantically whispering to each other, and sending completely unsubtle looks at their apparent dance partners. Rory hung back, curious to see her fate, but not enough to try and make her way through the crowd. 

Suddenly she caught sight of Paris emerging from the crowd, beet red and making a swift bee line for the door. They made a brief second of eye contact, before the furious Paris all but sprinted from the room. Her exit was followed by quiet snickers, more so than usual. 

Oh, God.

Only one thing could possibly get Paris in such a mood, she must have been paired with Tristan. Rory let out an exasperated sigh, as she saw Tristan himself making his way out of the crowd, but rather than saunter his obnoxious, annoying personality over to her to begin the the one sided banter he seemed to think was flirting, he sent her a bemused smile and walked out of the room.

What the hell was he playing at? Was this some kind of long game? The idea that Tristan might have any kind of plan or system already mapped out for the next month of her life filled Rory with dread and some kind of preemptive exhaustion.

Eventually, the crowd thinned out, and most of the class left, and she walked up to sheet. the last few students turned away, and one of the smaller girls let out a squeak when she saw Rory behind her, then pressed her hand to her mouth to stifle a nervous giggle and she skittered away. 

God, they all know. They all know how much I hate Tristan, and now I’m going to have to spend time with him and oh GOD we’re gonna have to hold hands. A cold shiver of disgust ran up her spine at the thought.

She walked up the list, and ran her finger down until she found Dugray, Tristan, Paired with…. Myrtle Shaw? Who the hell was that? Rory had a vague recollection of one of the quieter Puffs being named Myrtle, but she couldn’t remember a last name. What the hell did everyone find so funny if she wasn’t with Tristan?

She scanned over the column that of the girls, but couldn’t find her name listed, until her eye caught, Geller, Paris, and in the left hand row - Gilmore, Rory. Oh great. Paris and Rory had never been the best of of friends, but after the whole mess with The Puffs, Rory didn’t think they’d ever been on worse terms. She looked over the list again, and there were no other girls who’d been paired together, it seemed like there were just more girls than boys.

Rory began to regret the wording of her earlier pseudo-prayer. She hadn’t thought of this as a possibilty. She looked over the list again, triple checking what she’d seen. She wondered what they’d been assigned. Paris had probably already learned to waltz in kindergarten, Rory was going to look like an idiot. She briefly imagined a stiff armed, precise waltz across the gym with Paris.

She trudged out of the gym to the lockers, and changed back into her uniform, wondering how in the hell she was supposed to go about this. She briefly entertained somehow acquiring some horrible injury, but she really needed the grade, and Chilton would probably only give her an extension for anything short of death.

Rory checked her watch. She’d already missed the first bus, it had taken her ten minutes to get her shoes on, because she couldn’t stop thinking about how many feet she had stood on in her childhood lessons with Miss Patty - and that hadn’t even been pairs dancing, she just had foot seeking missiles attached to the end of her legs. She figured Paris would give her about three chances before actually murdering her for standing on her foot. Paris probably never stood on anyone’s foot. She probably learned the Viennese Waltz before she learned to ride a bike. 

Rory ran out of excuses to stay in the empty locker room, and set off for her locker. The hallway outside was all but empty. All, but Paris. 

She stood across the hall from the locker room door, leaning against the wall with her arms crossed tight enough across a folder that it had to be cutting off circulation to her hands. She already looked annoyed. 

“What could possibly have taken you so long?” She snapped. 

“I was late out of the class. I didn’t realise you’d want to meet so soon.” Rory replied.

“Soon? We only have a month to learn this, are you kidding me? The final is right after the break. If you aren’t going to take this seriously, I’m going to have to request a different partner.” 

“We aren’t allowed to switch, believe me, I checked.” There was a little more heat to the words than she had intended, but Paris brought that out in her. “Besides, weren’t you raised to be the perfect little socialite, surely you can dance.”

Paris looked at the ground, then shoved the folder into Rory’s hands without looking. “I can waltz, technically. I know how to, at least. But we aren’t waltzing.”

Rory opened the folder, and found a album by someone named ‘Willy Colón’, and a choreography booklet with SALSA written on the front in large print font.

“No.” Rory felt panic rising in her throat, “No I can’t do this. We have to switch.”

“You said it yourself. No switching, I already asked.”

“I’m a danger to myself and others.”

“You think I didn’t try that one? He’s seen you play squash, he already knows the potential for violence that lurks behind though innocence doe eyes. We have to rehearse at your house, I don’t want anyone to see me.”

“There’s no space, we’d have to dance outside.” Rory flicked through the booklet, her brow furrowed in confusion “How do we even study this, I don’t know what any of this means. Do you?”

Paris shook her head. “I thought you’d know, didn’t you used to take dance lessons? I think you’re supposed to get a tutor.”

Rory was surprised Paris would remember that, she didn’t even remember mentioning it. Maybe she’d shown her Miss Patty’s dance studio when she had visited Stars Hollow?

“Miss Patty!” Rory burst in sudden realisation. “Miss Patty can tutor us. We’ll rehearse in her studio, she can keep people out, no one you know will see. She’s a good teacher, and she always wanted to teach me to dance, when I was little-“

“Yeah, yeah, you were her greatest challenge,” Paris cut her off, “you’re an angel, everyone in stars hollow loves you, I remember. That should do. We should start tonight. Or do you want to be under rehearsed?”

Rory said she would have to call ahead to make sure Miss Patty was free, which, unfortunately for Rory, she was. She was surprised she had agreed so readily, she hadn’t been back to Stars Hollow since the group project and the Bangles concert.

“Oh of course honey!” She bellowed into the phone, “Oh the salsa is a beautiful dance, you’ll love it, it’s like Rita Moreno told me…” Rory mmmhmmed through Miss Patty’s story will Paris hurried her down the hallway to her car, and headed off towards Star’s Hollow. There were almost half way there before Rory could hang up on Miss Patty.

“She’d better not be so chatty, we need to study, not learn about whoever Miss Patty boned back in 1975.” Rory grimaced.

“Please be nice to her Paris.”

“I am nice. I just don’t like people wasting my time.” She honked loudly at a pedestrian that was crossing too slowly for her liking. “I need this grade. P.E. is my only class below an A-.”

“Me too.”

“What time did she say she could tutor us?”

“She’s not free until after 7, she teaches half the elementary schoolers in Stars Hollow after school.”

“We should get something to eat before then. We could go to that diner?”

“Luke’s?”

“Whatever it’s called. I could do with a burger.”

The idea of Paris eating a burger was immediately so atypical that Rory just agreed to whatever Paris said next. Paris ate like a bird at school, spending the whole lunch break picking at whatever garbage the cafeteria was serving that day. Although on days when there were fries, she seemed to go through those quicker. Rory wondered when she’d collected and stored all these weird Paris Facts, but she supposed she was just observant. 

She sat back and listened to Paris rant about the “stupid administration” at this “idiotic school”, and what complete nonsense it was, holding out education - our Education, Rory! - over their heads for the sake of some nonsense like P.E. Rory nodded along to Paris, agreeing politely whenever Paris paused for breath.

**Author's Note:**

> Please don't correct me on canon, i simply cannot give un fucke


End file.
